Power works in mysterious ways in Kyrgyzstan. Ask who started its revolution, and some will point to Jenishbek Nazaraliyev, whose unusual method of treating drug addiction has made him one of the richest men in this impoverished former Soviet republic.
His clinic in Bishkek, the capital, was one of the launch pads for the March 24 uprising, when thousands gathered outside its fenced yard to hear opposition speeches and set off on a march on government headquarters.
But three months later, Nazaraliyev seems as disenchanted with the new regime as he was with the old.
Revered by some as a miracle worker, dismissed by others as a quack, Nazaraliyev doesn't claim exclusive credit for the March 24 uprising that ousted President Askar Akayev.
The wave of protests, in fact, started in the south, among people who felt increasingly disenfranchised in a nation run by Akayev's northern-based clan.
But Nazaraliyev helped galvanize the elite with a series of newspaper articles a few days before the disputed February parliamentary elections that led to turmoil in the streets.
"The revolution was carried out by the people, but technically it was carried out by Nazaraliyev," he says, speaking of himself in the third person as is his custom, his intense dark eyes locked on his interviewer, his two cellphones ringing continually.
The articles he wrote accused Akayev and his relatives of using their positions to amass power and wealth, and expressed the frustration of Kyrgyz businesspeople who complained that the Akayev clan was elbowing in on their turf.
Ego played a part too. Nazaraliyev wrote that the regime never acknowledged his success in treating drug addicts and promoting Kyrgyzstan's image abroad.
"For the last 15 years, no senior Kyrgyz official has pronounced my name publicly," he says. "They were jealous of my image."
The ousted Akayev has confirmed Nazaraliyev's role, albeit in a backhanded way, claiming to a Russian paper, Argumenty i Fakty, that "criminal leaders and Kyrgyz drug kingpins were involved" in the revolt, and that "Some of them are officially working as `narkology"' -- drug addiction therapists.
While rarely seen in public, Nazaraliyev's face is one of the most recognizable in Kyrgyzstan.
He owns a radio station and two of Bishkek's priciest restaurants -- a steakhouse and a Japanese eatery. But it's the 30-day, US$4,500 treatments at his clinic that have made him most famous.
Patients are initially treated with injections and pills. Then Nazaraliyev puts them in a hypnotic state and chants and shouts at them. At a recent session, patients were put through stress therapy, screaming and arching their backs until they collapsed in exhaustion.
In the final phase of treatment, each patient makes a 175km trek into the mountains outside Bishkek, carrying a rock.
The patient refers to the rock as a friend to be told all of his or her problems. At journey's end the rock is thrown on a pile of rocks.
"They are returning him to me as he used to be," said Larisa, a patient's wife who gave only her first name for fear of publicly revealing her husband's addiction, which treatment in Russia had failed to conquer.
After the uprising, Nazaraliyev announced he would run for president in the election set for Sunday.
But he withdrew after acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and former Kyrgyz security chief Felix Kulov agreed to be running-mates, practically guaranteeing their victory.
Nazaraliyev says he doesn't fit easily into any one camp. His relations with the new government have yet to become clear, though he accuses it of doing the same things as its predecessor did -- "distributing jobs and dividing the country along regional lines."
Nazaraliyev is 44 and has a 20-year-old son in the US and a 5-year-old daughter in Bishkek. He alternates between expensive suits and medical tunics.
He lost all the hair on his head a year ago because of a sickness that he blamed on work-related stress.
"I've treated 15,000 patients for drug addiction and have accumulated 15,000 pieces of dirt from each of them," he said.
He says he feels out of place in Kyrgyzstan, complaining about the cuisine -- heavy on fatty meats -- and the company -- "I am bored here, because there are no people of my level that I can communicate with."
"I don't have friends among lawmakers or ministers," he says. "I used to travel to the United States and Russia a lot, where people have more interesting personalities."
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS